Theo Riddick rushed for 146 yards and a touchdown, Kyle Brindza kicked five field goals, and No. 1 Notre Dame secured a spot in the BCS championship game with a 22-13 victory over Southern California on Saturday night.

Everett Golson passed for 217 yards as the Fighting Irish (12-0) completed their first perfect regular season since 1988, earning a trip to south Florida on Jan. 7 to play for the storied program's first national title in 24 years.

Although they did little with flash on an electric night at the Coliseum, the Irish woke up more echoes of past Notre Dame greats with a grinding effort in this dynamic intersectional rivalry with USC (7-5), which has lost four of five.

Notre Dame's hard-nosed defense appropriately made the decisive stand in the final minutes, keeping USC out of the end zone on four plays from the Irish 1 with 2:33 to play.

After spending more than a decade looking up at the Trojans, the Irish are back on top of this rivalry with two straight wins in Los Angeles. The school of Knute Rockne, the Four Horsemen and Paul Hornung has new heroes now, from inspirational linebacker Manti Te'o to coach Brian Kelly, who took the Irish from unranked to start the season to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the first time in 19 years.

Te'o, the Heisman Trophy hopeful, had a key interception against USC and became the second Irish defender with three 100-tackle seasons.

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The grind-it-out win highlighted an unforgettable season for the Irish, who began the year with questions about their relevancy and survived some uninspiring performances and nail-biting finishes with their unbeaten record intact.

Notre Dame is likely to face an SEC opponent in Miami, but won't know for another week.

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- After Oregon's loss to Stanford last weekend, running back Kenjon Barner figured there were three ways for the Ducks to respond in the Civil War against Oregon State.

"You can let it define you, destroy you or strengthen you," Barner said. "With this team, every loss we've taken in the past, it's strengthened us, made us stronger. Looking back on Stanford, it was a loss. We knew what we had to do to get back on the winning track, and we did it."

Barner ran for 198 yards and two touchdowns -- despite leaving the game for a time with what he called a minor injury -- and No. 5 Oregon defeated No. 16 Oregon State 48-24 in the Civil War.

The victory initially kept the Ducks (11-1, 8-1) alive for a spot in the Pac-12 title game, but Stanford defeated UCLA 35-17 later Saturday night to clinch the league's northern division.

Stanford's 17-14 overtime victory over the Ducks last Saturday meant that both teams finished the regular season with just one conference loss, but the Cardinal (10-2, 8-1) claimed the head-to-head matchup to advance to the championship game -- a rematch with the Bruins -- next Friday.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Stepfan Taylor rushed for 142 yards and two touchdowns, Kevin Hogan passed for 160 yards and another score, and No. 11 Stanford beat No. 15 UCLA to win the Pac-12 Conference North title and a rematch with the Bruins in the conference championship game.

The Cardinal (10-2, 8-1 Pac-12) found out about 10 minutes before the opening kickoff that No. 5 Oregon (11-1, 8-1) had beaten No. 16 Oregon State 48-24, meaning they had to win to qualify for another shot at UCLA -- a game Stanford will host next Friday.

The Cardinal, who have three straight 10-win seasons for the first time, handed Oregon a 17-14 overtime setback last weekend to put themselves in position to win the Pac-12 North title with a victory over the Pac-12 South champion Bruins (9-3, 6-3), who earned their berth in the title game by beating Southern California 38-28 last weekend.

The win was the sixth straight for Stanford and their fourth in a row over UCLA, which had a five-game winning streak snapped -- its longest in seven years.

Taylor, a 5-foot-11, 215-pound senior who carried 20 times, didn't play in the fourth quarter. He raised his career rushing total to 4,134 yards and will need 36 yards in the rematch with UCLA to break the Stanford career rushing record of 4,169 yards set by Darrin Nelson in 1977-81.

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